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Nuggets get another road win

Gallinari goes for a career-high 39 points

By Christopher Dempsey The Denver Post

Posted:
12/28/2012 10:55:28 PM MST

Updated:
12/28/2012 10:55:59 PM MST

DALLAS -- While Dallas toiled, and eventually gave away a game in Oklahoma City on Thursday night, the Nuggets sat back in hotel rooms in Dallas and watched. For once, they were the team laying in wait to catch another on the second of a back-to-back. So many nights in this early season, they've been that team.

The plan then, was simple: Keep the energy high, keep the ball flying up the court and eventually wear down the road-weary Mavericks.

It worked.

Not as smoothly as the Nuggets would have imagined overall, but it looked that way, and behind a career night from Danilo Gallinari, they carved out a 106-85 win over Dallas on Friday night at American Airlines Arena anyway. It was the first of a back-to-back set for them, road game No. 21, and another step closer to January, the month that signals the official end of a patience-and-toughness-testing first two months mostly spent on the road.

"We've played (21) road games, it's tough to win games on the road," Nuggets point guard Ty Lawson said. "I feel like we're going to win a lot of games in January and be way above .500."

But to get there, they had to get through the Mavericks first, and Dallas did not let the Nuggets simply roll the ball out and get the victory. The Nuggets did sprint out to a 15-point lead but the Mavericks cut that to five on a few occasions before the Nuggets regained control of things.

Kenneth Faried was an animal -- a Manimal -- on the boards, nearly collecting a double-double by the end of the first quarter alone.

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One point was all that kept him from a first quarter double-double as his 11 rebounds in the period were more than the Mavericks had as a team (8).

Then there was the Nuggets' 3-point shooting.

They were skewered -- and rightfully so -- for an 0-of-22 performance from beyond the arc in a loss to Portland. But since then, hitting 3-pointers haven't been much of an issue. They went 12-of-28 against the Mavericks, including 6-of-7 in the third quarter alone.

It means that since the Portland game, the Nuggets have hit 33-of-83 shots from 3-point range, including a sizzling 24-of-50 in the last two games alone.

The players doing the most damage from distance were Danilo Gallinari and Andre Iguodala. The two combined to hit 11 of the team's 12 makes from beyond the arc. Both have been streaky shooters from range this season, but they were hot at the same time against the Mavericks.

Gallinari's 39 points were a career-high and marked the third time he has had consecutive games of 19 or more points this season. Both he and Iguodala had 13 points in the third.

The Mavericks are a still-evolving group and it showed. Their star, Dirk Nowitzki, still comes off the bench after returning from a knee injury. He played just 18 minutes. O.J. Mayo played his best game in more than a week, but it wasn't enough to spark anything lasting for the Mavericks. Until all they get back into their normal roles and Nowitzki regains his All Star form, they'll be easy pickings most nights. The Nuggets, who finish their trip with a big game tonight at Memphis, took full advantage on Friday night.

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